Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Review (LowBudgetGaming)
Extremely enjoyable 3rd person action adventure game set in the Lord of the Rings universe. Game stands out for the fast fluid combat and the very famous enemy AI system called the Nemesis System.
The story of the game is nothing special as its not from the books. You play as a Ranger who gets killed along with his wife and son. However you cannot die as your soul is attached to Celebrimbor, an elven smith who had created the Ring of Power. Anyway without going too much into the story you get a lot of special abilities due to being this state.
Pros
+ Fast fluid combat with a lot of cool moves that can be unlocked and combos you can use to string some amazing moves.
+ The Nemesis System : This is an enemy AI system that gives each of the Uruks in the game a unique personality. They remember you from their encounters with you and they have a hierarchy system that you can manipulate etc to your advantage. This system makes every enemy different and I have not seen this style of interaction in any other game besides the two middle earth games.
Cons
- Open world is tiny. There are a few small sections of the map that constitute the open world in the game. Leads to a few issues in gameplay such as
- Enemies respawning frequently. You see a group of Uruks, you rush in, slash slash, chop off a head or two and clear the lot. Walk five yards and turn around and boom - they have all respwaned !
- This was also one of the first games where I was a bit frustrated with the parkour etc. You see if you played the early AC games when you climbed up somewhere and lets say mistimed a jump or walked too close to the ledge you would fall off, right ? Here its the opposite, your character cannot fall off. You have to press a button to jump or drop from a ledge as Talion will automatically grab on to things or balance on a ledge until you decide to jump. We may have gotten used to this now but at the time felt annoying as a mechanic.
- The game also has very low FOV (field of view) by default. I am one of those people who gets a headache instantly if the FOV is too low and I had a headache within 10 mins of this game. The only solution is to go into the .ini files and increase it as there is no option in game.
Overall the combat and the fun AI system is what makes the game shine. Once your character is upgraded a little and you have unlocked some moves you will be flying into hordes of Uruks, chopping off heads and just having an amazing time. Dodging, blocking, chopping, stringing combos etc is a lot of fun.
WB is also pretty generous with sales on its older games and you can pick this game up for very cheap during sales. Its an incredible bargain for the quality of game that it is and if you enjoy action, hack and slash type games this will be a good time.